Alternative Cancer Therapies | Natural Health Blog

Prostate Cancer Therapy Proven Useless

When cancer strikes, even the alternative-minded among us sometimes get scared into the arms of the medical mainstream -- and unfortunately, that's not necessarily advantageous. For example, in the case of at least one highly touted traditional approach -- hormone therapy for early prostate cancer -- evidence now shows that the treatment imparts absolutely no benefit for older men, and plenty of risk. Because prostate cancer tends to grow slowly in people over 70, most elderly patients choose to avoid risky surgery or radiation therapy unless their cancer spreads more rapidly than anticipated. Instead, they opt to see if the cancer becomes problematic -- an approach known as "conservative management" -- or, quite frequently, they undergo androgen-deprivation (hormone) therapy, which blocks the production of male hormones via drugs or implants.

But now, a new study out of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey reviewed data on 19,271 men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer and found that although 40-percent of them opted to undergo hormone therapy, the treatment did nothing at all to prolong their survival. According to the research findings, after hormone therapy was administered for approximately 18 months, the subjects showed no increase in survival when compared to subjects who opted to do nothing other than monitor their condition. In fact, the mortality from prostate cancer was actually slightly higher in the group that underwent hormone therapy as compared to the do-nothing group. Because the study focused on men over age 66 with early-stage cancer, it's unclear if the treatment might benefit younger patients.

Hormone therapy has been viewed as a good compromise approach for those who fear doing nothing, but who want to avoid the more radical interventions of surgery and radiation. (Doctors just hate to do nothing. It feels too much like impotence.) According to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the percentage of low-risk patients treated with hormone therapy instead of surgery or radiation tripled between 1989 and 2001, and that trend upward has continued. But the compromise-approach now has been compromised by the results of this new study. The findings confirm that hormone therapy just doesn't work.

Unfortunately, the bad news doesn't stop at the fact that the treatment isn't effective. To add insult to injury, the side effects of hormone blockers can range from debilitating to deadly. Plenty of research shows an increased risk of developing serious conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, liver problems, anemia, and osteoporosis. Add to that list an array of ugly side effects that don't necessarily kill the body, but that can destroy the spirit -- impotence, exhaustion, insomnia, breast tissue growth, hot flashes, depression, and weight gain. A 2005 study published in CANCER found a link between androgen blockers and cognitive decline affecting verbal fluency, visual recognition, and visual memory.

And so we have yet another example of a treatment modality that doctors have widely recommended to their patients that turns out, on closer examination, to be little more than dangerous hocus-pocus. How many years and on how many men and at what cost was this unproven treatment used -- only to be proven ineffective in the end? It's downright maddening that the medical establishment continues to declare its methods superior to the alternative approach, when in the end, alternative therapy is no less "scientific" than most medicine, costs a whole lot less, is at least as effective, and generally doesn't produce the same level of side effects. (The father-in-law of one of our Foundation researchers happens to be a recipient of hormone-blocking therapy. Reading these research results after watching him suffer from the after-effects of the treatment infuriated her no end.)

A cursory Google search using the term, "dangers of alternative cancer treatments" turned up 2,530,000 results. Among the first of these results is a page from Johns Hopkins Hospital, bearing the scary title: Alternative Cancer Treatments: Unproven and Potentially Unsafe." The article warns patients against the menace of relying on dietary approaches, colon cleanses, and various supplements and teas.

Perhaps the authors at Johns Hopkins should add a companion piece entitled: "Mainstream Prostate Cancer Treatments: Now Proven Ineffective, Unsafe -- and Guaranteed to Make Men Grow Boobs."

:hc

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Comments

Submitted by alex jacques on

August 3, 2008 - 10:29pm

I have read and copied many of your articles.
I am 77, At 59 I had 1/3 of my colon removed because of a tumor.
At that time they used ultrasound to find it and told me I also had an enlarged prostate.
I have been on prostate defense ,,by north star for some time and wonder about it's ability. I have no problem peeing but go maybe twice during the night. Have any of these supplements been proven to be efective
Alex

How does one ""free up the bound testosterone""?
John Lee, M.D. has written ""Natural Hormone Balance for Men"". He and his writings are the fundamentals for our group, www.Alternative-Health-Group.org . Dr Lee's website is available through ours, or directly at www.johnleemd.com .
Thank you for all your information.
Dexter

Testing is not always as effective as its promoted. In the end, if a formula works for you, it works. If it doesn't it doesn't. Different formulas work differently depending on the quality of the ingredients used and the cause of the underlying condition. you can get more information about hormone from this address as well,
http://lahealthandrejuvenation.com/

The different ingredients in formulas such as Prostate Defense have been studied, but, for the most part, completed formulas have not. Then again, as learned above, testing is not always as effective as its promoted. In the end, if a formula works for you, it works. If it doesn't it doesn't. Different formulas work differently depending on the quality of the ingredients used and the cause of the underlying condition. There are multiple factors that can go into enlarging the prostate Sometimes, the only way to know what works is trial and error - pretty much the way doctors do it, but without the damaging side effects.

PS: You might want to consider researching the value of using a men's progesterone creme

Yes, but better than hormone therapy that introduces "additional" terstosterone to the body is freeing up the bound testosterone that's already in your body but tied to SHBG and albumin, thus rendering it unavailable. The one bit of hormone therapy that does make sense for men, though, is using a men's natural progesterone creme to neutralize the effects of exposure to excess estrogen.

My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer last week. He already saw an oncologist and he went back to his Urologist.
I has been reading about treatments for prostate cancer and I'm getting confused with the rational of standard medicine to use this injections to eliminate tetosterone and recommendations for radiation. My father is 81 y/o and he takes care of my mom who is disable but they are independent and happy.They have been married for 61 years
I'm not sure that these treatments are going to do much for him besides decreasing his quality of life but if we decide to go for alternative medicine where can we go that can be trusted to get a healthy diet and supplements?
Thanks,
Maria

Lycopene, which is found in tomatoes can significantly reduse the risk of prostate cancer in men. Lycopene, which incidentally is richer in tomatoe sause than fresh tomatoes, is also used as a colouring (E160d) in the food industry.

Well now. After all the BS we find that prostate cancer is yet with us. Ever consider the 'Great American Lifestyle Theory' that points to the way we conduct our lives and how we expose ourselves to the very things that can cause this problem? Stupid people! Get on with it. "Curing" any cancer is akin to throwing glass at a stone house. The 'Docs' have it all backwards...but then again, the payment on the Mercedes is due, the trophy wife needs stuff and the kids could never consider working for a living!

When men are young their testosterone level is high compared to estrogen and little or no prostate cancer.
As men grow older their testosterone level becomes lower and their estrogen level becomes high with onset of prostate cancer.
This is a clear indication if hormone therapy is used to provide young testosterone levels the occurrence of prostate cancer my be again low.

In response to Stillman Gates comment: when men are young most of them suffer from little or no ANY type of cancer, let alone prostate cancer ! So that argument of having ample testosterone to ward off prostate cancer in older men is misleading. But the real danger lies in DHT, a byproduct of testosterone, which affects the prostate gland 10 times more than testosterone per se.

Hard to find info on how to get off Lupron/Casodex while in the clutches of mets at bones that cause horrific pain.
I hate Lupron, the double-edged sword. How to revert cancer cells to normal or kill themselves? How is Bone Mets pain managed while trying to crossover to alternative remedies?

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